This invention relates to food product cookers, and in particular to an apparatus especially adapted for cooking shells for tacos from tortillas.
A variety of food product cookers have been utilized in the past for producing taco shells and other tortilla type products. A continuing aim for machines of this type has been to make the equipment more automatic thereby reducing the amount of manual attention required, to make the machine more reliable and less prone to damage the product thereby reducing loss due to waste, and to increase the production rate thereby reducing costs.
One type of machine proposed utilizes male and female molds for forming the finished product shape. Machines of this type are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,680,474; 3,766,846, 3,901,137, 4,510,165; and 4,530,275. Another type of machine utilizes moveable members such as wings or plates to form a taco shell. Such machines are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,667,372; 3,861,289 and 4,184,418. Higher production rates have been achieved by some machine designs with the spacing between the tortilla forming units being reduced at the oil pan where cooking takes place. Such machines are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,946,655; 3,948,160; 4,380,191; 4,719,849 and 4,754,699.
Machines of the last mentioned type usually are able to utilize shorter oil pans for a given production rate than the earlier mentioned machines. While machines of this type have been used in a number of production facilities, problems have been encountered with respect to product loading and unloading and with fully automatic operation and precise formation of the finished product.
Some specific problems of earlier equipment overcome by the machine of the present invention include: improved control of product spacing and orientation of the discharge end of the machine; placing the product deeper in the oil while frying by driving the product carrying mandrel into the oil at an angle; and improved oil drainage of the fried product with a raised and lengthened oil pan exit path.